More Cities Rely on Digital Service Reporting
We’ve mentioned New York City’s plans for digital services, but NYC is not alone: other cities are also leveraging digital services to handle the needs of their citizens.
As New Yorkers have discovered, real-time reporting by residents leads to more direct action from government agencies to get problems solved. Even in smaller cities, policymakers can put existing social-media platforms to work at little cost, and to good effect. In Newark, citizens are able to send tweets directly to Mayor Cory Booker regarding service issues. The Mayor often responds directly to the tweet to let the citizen know he is taking care of the issue!
On a broader scale, Chicago is improving the city’s overall digital literacy by building on its Digital Excellence plan, “which focuses on providing high-speed computer access, local online content and affordable computer software, hardware, education and awareness to underserved neighborhoods.” By creating better digital access for citizens, the City also benefits: with advances in mobile-phone technology, citizens are reporting in real time when a street lamp is out, when a pipe has burst, and other concerns, through services like Chicago’s 311.
The city is also reporting back to residents on conditions in their own neighborhoods. MetroPulse, a website created by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the Chicago Community Trust, makes extensive quality-of-life data available to citizens and policymakers.
